


New idiots

by AmnesiaticRoses



Series: 100-Word Challenge [1]
Category: Fire Emblem: Soen no Kiseki/Akatsuki no Megami | Fire Emblem Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-05
Updated: 2015-04-05
Packaged: 2018-03-21 10:33:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3688962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmnesiaticRoses/pseuds/AmnesiaticRoses
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shinon's not that pleased about Greil asking him to cover the rookie. What kind of fighter has to seal himself in metal before bothering to fight?</p>
            </blockquote>





	New idiots

**Author's Note:**

> Usual disclaimers apply - I don't own any of this and hope I do it no disservice. This story is one for the first prompt of this 100 word challenge (http://queenpetra.deviantart.com/art/100-Word-Challenge-List-146992265).

"I don't understand why we're even doing this," Shinon groused.

Titania stared into the woods, watching and waiting. "Because his parents hired us to do it this way. Just in case."

"But you know they're not going to honor any deal."

"And that," she said grimly, "Is why they asked _us_ to do this."

Trading money for a kidnapped kid. What sort of work was that for anyone, but especially for them? Fucking boring work, that's what. Shinon was almost antsy enough to volunteer for scouting duty when Greil returned to their makeshift camp with a second person clanking along behind him. "This is Gatrie," Greil said. "He's going to be joining us and, for today, he'll be carrying the money out. Shinon, I need you to cover him. Titania, you know the plan."

Shinon gave the new idiot a once-over while their commander spoke. A canned idiot this time. Always good to have some variety, he guessed. The guy's blonde hair was perfectly coiffed, held in place by some vain alchemy. 

Gatrie held a hand out in friendly greeting and Titania shook it, earning her a grin. The guy was encased in metal, more than Greil himself, and unlike Titania, didn't even bother making up for his ponderousness with a horse. He even picked a weapon that put reach ahead of nimbleness. Every movement seemed to be in slow motion as he turned toward Shinon and offered to shake his hand as well. 

"Got that Shinon?" asked Greil.

"Yessir," he said, ignoring the newcomer's friendly gesture and slinging himself up a sizeable oak tree as though its branches were a ladder. 

The clearing beyond hissed a little as blustery winds sliced among the weeds. Shinon cast a practiced eye over it, reading the terrain. Several downed trees, all but wrapped in vines and long grass, lay around the edge of the open space as though forbidding the living trees entry. Someone had felled them to create this open space years ago. Shinon shifted, tried another branch, squinted, and moved again. The wind would betray him here, another tree obscured part of the field there... ah, this spot would be perfect. He settled back against the trunk, bow loose in his fingers, and peered through a light screen of leaves.

He didn't have to wait long. The sun hadn't moved enough in the sky to notice when the trees on the other side of the clearing shivered and a man stepped out, hands up. "We're here!" he shouted. "Did you bring the money?"

Greil's voice rang out from almost directly under Shinon's perch. "We have. Where's the boy?"

The man gestured and the trees parted to let another kidnapper in - a woman this time, yanking the 6-year-old boy by the arm.

Shinon couldn't conceal a small sound of disgust at the sight of the woman, gripping the child's arm so tight his skin reddened around her fingers. The kid sagged, as though his legs had just about given out, and stared emptily across the clearing without apparently seeing anything. Shinon's eyes narrowed.

Seriously, if you're going to have a hostage, why would you not keep them in front of you, as a shield? _Amateurs._

"Our representative is coming out," Greil announced. He may as well not have bothered though. The moment that Gatrie fellow took a step, everyone could hear him coming. Clank. Clank. Clank.

The moment Gatrie broke the tree line, Shinon could see it reflected in their faces. The kid's attention focused, finally, and the eyes of the woman holding him widened, while the apparently leader took a step back, hand reaching for the knife at his belt. Shinon had to admit, even without the spear and tower shield, there was something a little daunting about a man wearing enough metal to outfit a royal kitchen.

"I'm not armed." Gatrie's voice sounded as easygoing as if he were commenting on the weather. Shinon shifted a little, trying to get the walking tin can into view. His fingers moved on their own, nocking an arrow but for the moment leaving the bowstring undrawn. "I've just got your money."

The leader took another step back, then visibly mastered himself and stood up straighter. "Let's see it then."

Gatrie clanked into view with his hands up, moving just as slowly as Shinon had guessed when he saw the ridiculous armor. Now the archer did draw his bow partway and pointed it at the leader, then over to the woman, then back to the leader. Him. If the woman made a move, she'd be hindered by holding onto the kid. The man was the most present danger.

Gatrie stopped about three paces from the man and slowly lowered his hands, holding the one with the cloth bag of coins out ahead of him. "Here's what you asked for," he said. Shinon had to give it to him - he didn't sound at all bothered by the situation. Shinon finished the draw and held it, feeling the tension of the bowstring against his fingers, begging him to let it fly. 

The kidnapper stepped forward, trying to look calm, and grabbed the money from Gatrie's hand before hurrying back a couple steps. 

What came next was so predictable as to be boring. The lead kidnapper made a gesture and arrows flew from the cover of the trees. Gatie, moving as soon as the kidnapper had, turned so one glanced off his shoulder armor and Shinon heard the other skittering through the leaves below him even as he loosed his own. The familiar fletching found a home in the center of the kidnapper's chest. He dropped his knife and grasped at the arrow ineffectively before falling to the ground. In the woods across the clearing, someone screamed - a hoarse, terrified sound.   
Titania must have found one of the archers.

The woman finally did what she should have done in the first place, yanking the kid in front of her and pulling her knife, which she aimed vaguely at the child's face. A new arrow was already on the string, but as Shinon drew back, Gatrie took two steps toward her. She brought the knife up in a laughable swing that glanced off his armor, then with deftness that surprised Shinon, Gatrie grabbed the woman's wrist and lifted her.

Shinon let the bowstring go slack a little. He'd seen Titania hook an enemy while riding and drag them, seen Greil throw someone away from him with no apparent difficulty, but this was different. He just deadlifted the woman's full weight - Shinon eyeballed her at about 160 pounds and that wasn't counting the heft of the armor - and shook her once her feet were off the ground. Shit, how strong was this guy? 

The kidnapper released the child, using that hand to uselessly claw at his arm. Gatrie muttered something, then opened his hand and she fell to the ground, clutching her hand to her chest. The kid ran around behind Gatrie and said something Shinon couldn't hear. 

Shinon did feel marginally better when the knight dropped his arm immediately to his side. _Wasn't as easy as you made it look, was it?_

A crashing and several shouts from below and behind him alerted him that Greil had found more of the other team's number. He didn't bother turning - shooting into the forest would be no better than a roll of the dice, and stupid as it was, he had his orders. Cover the new guy. If he had to guess, Titania was already on the way to join him. They might be a bit too law-and-order for Shinon's taste, but he had to admit that when the two of them were working together, there wasn't anything that could stand against them.

Gatrie was backing toward Shinon now, hands out to increase the space he could protect just in case any archers remained. The boy was shuffling along in the same direction, close enough now that Shinon could see the tracks on his face where the kid had been crying. Not crying now, at least. Small blessings. 

Something moved in the woods across from him, to Gatrie's left. The breeze carried the subtle hiss of a sword pulling free of its leather sheath.

Instantly the bowstring was taut, and Shinon sighted down the arrow, but the overhang of the trees obscured the culprit. Could be Titania. Could be an enemy. Couldn't see from here. Shit, SHIT!

He leapt down, holding the arrow and bow in one hand and using the other to grab a branch as he dropped, slowing his fall. The force of it sent a tingling shock down to his shoulder, but he landed on the ground without any major injury. Instantly his bow was up, sighting just past Gatrie, who started turning toward him, looking surprised. 

There. Brown clothes. No armor. No one on his team. The sword glinted as the person charged out of cover. They made it two steps into the clearing before an arrow hammered into him.   
Shinon pulled another arrow but didn't draw just yet. He turned instead back toward where he'd been hiding, listening for the sounds of chase that he's heard from the tree. "That it?" he asked, looking from the tree line to Gatrie.

Their eyes met just a moment, then his new teammate lunged right at him.

Shinon felt the cold weight of the gauntlet on his shoulder, shoving him, and he spun with the attack, bringing up his bow, pulling back the arrow, centering it on the back of the new turncoat's head - just as Gatrie's other fist slammed into the face of the woman who'd been threatening the kid earlier. The crunching sound that followed was horrific and she dropped like a stone, screaming in pain. Her knife fell from her nerveless fingers. 

Both he and Gatrie looked at the knife, then at each other. Gatrie shrugged. "I hate to hit a woman," he said in that same unconcerned tone. "But she should have stayed down."

"... Yeah." Shinon slowly let the bowstring go slack again. "Should have." Then he crossed and put the woman out of her misery. The new guy winced, but to his credit, didn't say anything, even when Shinon began searching the bodies for anything of use or value. As Gatrie led the kid back to their camp, or maybe just off to find Titania and Greil, Shinon reflected that maybe working with this new addition wouldn't be _completely_ horrible.


End file.
